Here are a few photos of some of the exciting places I've been this summer. For more personal photo albums and photos of my book signings, visit my MySpace page.

Quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth. This was taken outside the Stryker Sonoma winery (thanks Carroll!), and it captures the essence of wine country to me--good wine, good food, good friends. Warm sunshine, rolling hills of vines, and endless blue sky.

Happy harvest workers at Stag's Leap winery. You probably can't tell from the photo, but everyone in this shot is smiling. Winemaking just makes you feel good!

The tour guide at Stag's Leap gave me a cluster of these grapes as a souvenir. These will become the 2010 Fay Cabernet. And yes, if you must know, the grapes did make it home safely and are now dried, waiting to be reunited with their 2010 vintage.

Ahh, the beauty of the Pacific. Here, a random couple holds hands and walks on the beach. Awwww.

Cycling is big in SD. I've taken up urban cycling as one of my favorite things to do, so it was great fun to bike down the Silver Strand Blvd. A view of the bay from Coronado Island and a glimpse of me and my hubby in tourist-cyclist chic.

The stillness of the Alexander Valley is charged with a certain kind of energy--it's like listening to the earth whisper sweet nothings to you. (I am the pink-clad dot in the center.)

Even the archways of Opus One ooze exclusivity. The winery only produces one wine--a cabernet sauvignon that costs about $200 a bottle. And worth every penny of it.

Here I am tasting a glass of the 2004 Opus One. I think I'll hold off buying a case of this stuff until I become a bestselling author...

A view of downtown from the Silver Strand Blvd.

A view of the Hotel Del during a historical society tour.

Dressed in more traditional tourist attire, posing for a photo while our tour guide Rainbow is telling the ghost story of Kate Morgan. I feel an idea for a novel coming on...